Editorial

The Gambia: The Economic Plunder is a Family Affair

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

If you lived in the 70s, and had some interest and understanding of international politics, perhaps one name might stand out among a colorful list of divas, doyens and devils: Mrs. Imelda Marcus. Doesn’t sound familiar? Here is a hint. Imelda was the wife of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcus. Still clueless; huh?

Afang Ibilis Jammeh and the wife, Zainab

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Breaking News

Jammeh sacks Deputy Chief of Defense

Gen. Yankuba Drammeh

By Ebrima G. Sankareh Editor-In-Chief

Highly placed and unimpeachable military sources say, President Yahya Jammeh has sacked The Gambia’s Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, General Yankuba Drammeh from The Gambia National Army (GNA). Reveals our indefatigable military whistleblower Officer “X” (OX), Mr. “Sankareh, I can reveal with all the authority that earlier this morning, President Jammeh signed a memorandum dismissing General Yankuba Drammeh with disgrace, a rare form of military sacking here particularly, for a senior military officer”.

Brigadier Gen. Drammeh in green with US Ambassador Wells

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Mathew Jallow reacts to Sarr’s Article

For Immediate Release

Dear Editor,

Please allow me space to completely disassociate myself from Samsudeen Sarr’s article in which he made a disingenuous attempt to analyze one of my recent articles in The Gambia Echo. I am particularly offended by his insinuation that a part of the article which critiqued the opposition, somehow implied that they could not win an election against Jammeh’s APRC.

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Samsudeen Sarr Urges Jammeh to forgive Detainees

By Col. Samsudeen Sarr, Newark, New Jersey

In celebration of the Muslim feast of Tobaski (Eid al Adha)”, I wish to join everyone with my sincere prayers and good wishes to the whole human family, Muslims, Non-Muslims, Gambians and Non-Gambians alike. I also wish to acknowledge the goodwill messages sent by all Muslims especially by my fellow Gambians in the spirit of the occasion.

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Commentary

Whither heads The Gambia? - Part I

By D. A. Jawo, Banjul The Gambia

Veteran Gambian journalist and former president of the embattled Gambia Press Union (GPU), the intrepid Demba A. Jawo has just concluded his annual vacation in the West African state of The Gambia and while there took an objective examination of the looming political and economic activities of the country’s autocratic leader, Yahya Jammeh. Below we begin Part I of Mr. Jawo’s candid and biting observations.

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Breaking News

Ex-Fisheries Minister Yankuba Touray and  

Lt. M. A. Bah released

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Highly placed and unassailable military sources in Banjul report that the erstwhile Fisheries Minister and National Mobiliser of the ruling APRC party has been released Thursday afternoon following his arrest and detention at the Mile II Prisons last weekend.

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 United Democratic Party Tobaski message 

MESSAGE OF MR. OUSAINOU  DARBOE, SECRETARY GENERAL AND LEADER OF THE UNITED DEMOCRATIC PARTY ON THE OCCASION OF  THE  CELEBRATION  OF  THE  FEAST OF EID EL ADHA (TOBASKI), FRIDAY, 27TH  NOVEMBER, 2009

My Gambian Compatriots,

As we celebrate the Moslem feast of Eid El Adha, I would like once again as Secretary General and Party Leader of the United Democratic Party, to extend to all of you as well as those living among us, my warmest greetings on this auspicious occasion.

Ousainou Darboe, UDP leader

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Happy Thanksgiving, happy Tobaski

On this special day of Thanksgiving, The Gambia Echo wishes its readership a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving and prays that mankind will be wiser as we inch towards a new year. We also pray that America be a wiser nation and be blessed with wiser leaders whose foresight will bring about lasting peace in the world.

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Breaking News

As 2 Diplomatic maids flee Washington Embassy; Chargé D’Affaires J.T. Kujabie elusive

--Ex-Ambassador Macdouall Gaye likely in trouble

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

According to our unimpeachable State House operative, Kissy Kissy Mansa, two diplomatic maids assigned to erstwhile Gambian Ambassador to Washington, DC, Neneh Macdouall Gaye, have fled the Ambassador’s residence moments after it dawned on them that their boss has been sacked and like her, they too had to return to the West African state of The Gambia where economic conditions are progressively worsening.

Ambassador Gaye, L Sanyang & elusive J.T. Kujabi

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Press Release

Gambia Human Rights Coalition UK, Calls for The Gambia’s Expulsion      

We can now definitively confirm that Gambian BAD/BOY yaya Jammeh will be called to account for the Death Threats unleashed by his ever filthy mouth against Diasporan Gambians who dare challenge his abuse of power and HR record. We and our partners continue to showcase his reckless and blatant disregard for the rights of Gambian citizenry, and continue to press for the regime's isolation from the international community. We will not rest until Yaya jammeh (now the world's biggest comic buffoon)

Afang "Ebilis" with the Holy Quran, threatens to  cut off heads of human rights activists in Gambia

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Bombshell

President Jammeh demotes Bombarde to Private, demotes DIG Gaye to 1st. Class, sacks both

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

The drama and political see-sawing in Banjul seems to be worsening progressively as our indefatigable State House correspondent, Kissy Mansa reports that at closing time this afternoon, President Jammeh as Commander-In-Chief has signed at State House a memo demoting Colonel Kawsu Camara, notoriously called Bombarde (i.e. the bomber) to the rank of Private and then sacked him from The Gambia National Army (GNA).

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Guest Editorial

This is the Endgame

By Professor Abdoulaye Saine, Miami University

The 1994 army coup in The Gambia, now disingenuously dubbed a “revolution” is ironically eating its children.  Witness the recent wave of arrests, dismissals and detention of the high and powerful to the low, abused and discarded.  Jammeh is literally the lone survivor so far, the only person standing on clay feet fifteen years later.  His co-coup conspirators, Sadibou Hydara died under suspicious circumstances in prison of alleged hypertension; power-

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Editorial

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Gambia faces expulsion from Commonwealth

‘Gambia’s situation an embarrassment’

22 Nov 2009
Anika Gumbs-Sandiford (1)

Gambia could very well face expulsion from the Commonwealth because of death threats made by President Yahya Jammeh. Sunday Guardian has learnt that the Commonwealth Secretariat has made recommendations for dialogue with the Government of Gambia surrounding the development. Jammeh, in a television broadcast last week carried live, threatened to “kill anyone who tries to destabilise my country.”

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News Just In!

Yankuba Touray at Mile II, speculations about Edward Singhateh rife

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Our most dependable military sources have just reported that Yankuba Kabineh Touray, former Fisheries Minister and Ex-National Mobiliser of the ruling APRC party has arrived at the Mile II Central Prisons. Touray was lured to the NIA bureau earlier this morning and quickly arrested. He was interrogated for hours and is now at the Maximum Security Wing of Africa’s most notorious jail.

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Breaking News

Ex-Fisheries Minister, Yankuba Touray, Ex- NIA Director Gen., Lamin Bo Badjie, others arrested

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Ever since The Gambia Echo’s unimpeachable scoop over the high profile arrest and detention of senior military and police personnel Saturday afternoon, our newsroom has been inundated with powerful leads and yet again, we report with unassailable evidence that, Yankuba Kabineh Touray (a.k.a Yanks), erstwhile National Mobiliser and Fisheries Minister in the Jammeh regime has been arrested and is currently under interrogation at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Yankuba K. Touray in detention at NIA

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Breaking News

Colonel Kawsu Camara (Bombarde) sacked, arrested, at Mile II

By Ebrima G. Sankareh Editor-In-Chief

Unassailable sources within the corridors of state power report that Colonel Kawsu Camara, (a.k.a Bombarde) considered the most vicious and probably most ferocious killer in the Jammeh regime has been sacked arrested and detained at the Mile II Prisons. Until his humiliating arrest last night, Bombarde as he is notoriously called thanks to his callous reputation, was Commander of the Kanilai Zoo

Colonel Kawsu Camara, during a recent promotion

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Breaking News

Gen. Lang Tombong Tamba, Gen. Omar B. Mbaye, Deputy IGP Gaye, 2 others arrested, at Mile II

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Highly authoritative and unimpeachable military sources say Gambia’s famous military officer; General Lang Tombong Tamba has been arrested and sent to the country’s infamous Mile II Prisons late last night. Also arrested with General Tamba were, General Omar B. Mbaye, Deputy Inspector General of police Modou Gaye and two others; presumably from the country’s most predacious National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

The Dictator Vs. The General.

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How Yaya Jammeh manipulates Gambia’s judiciary

By Wandifa Sanneh (Nyancho) Email:nyancho_warrior@yahoo.com

The appointment of Nigerian prosecutors Akomaye Agim as Chief Justice, Wowo and Emmanuel Fagbenle as High Court Judges constitutes a pernicious regression to the administration of justice in The Gambia. To add salt to injury, the recent appointments of Nigerians as Principal Magistrates of all Magistrates Courts throughout The Gambia concludes the ultimate colonisation of our judiciary by Nigerian mercenary lawyers.

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 Breaking News

United Nations Calls Chief Manneh’s detention, ‘violation of international law’

FREEDOM NOW

P.O. Box 30155 • Bethesda, Maryland 20824 • 202 629-3385 • info@freedom-now.org • www.freedom- now.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

United Nations Declares Gambia’s Detention of Chief Ebrima Manneh a Violation of International Law, Calls for Immediate Release

Washington, D.C., November 18, 2009 – In response to a petition filed by attorneys from Freedom Now and Hogan & Hartson LLP, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued an opinion affirming that the arrest and continued detention by the Gambian government of Chief Ebrima Manneh, a senior reporter for the Gambian newspaper, Daily Observer, are without legal justification and in violation of international law.

Yahya Jammeh, Chief Manneh & Justice Minister Saine Firdaus 

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 Gambia Party of Truth releases first speech to the nation

By Sewa Laye Sisoukhou, The Party of Truth

A writer claiming to be the spokesperson of the Gambia Party for Truth has sent in a 35- page text to The Gambia Echo and today we begin serializing the text in its entirety…

On this day I have finally decided to pick up my pen and write.  Write I will not to be written down but for the power of the written word.  I write to inspire my fellow Gambians to seek their true calling and to become that which they are being called to.

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UDP Press Release on the Matter of Peters Vs. the State

Today, November 17th 2009, the state continued its case against Femi Peters and the United Democratic Party (UDP) regarding the political rally held several weeks ago.  This case follows the granting of a defense motion challenging among other things the initial attempt by the state to try the case in Banjul. The case was heard in Kanifing by magistrate IKpala after the first magistrate assigned the case recused himself.

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The Gambia: The Center Cannot Hold, Mere Anarchy is loosened Upon This Land

--Adapted from “The Second Coming”, a poem by W.B. Yeats.

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

Some valid arguments can be made that The Gambian experiment with democracy during Sir Dawda Jawara’s thirty-year reign was a farce; a political fakery with implications that continue to haunt and to a lesser degree, also inform Yahya Jammeh’s oppressive regime, fifteen long years on. The demise of the Jawara government was preceded by paralyzing detachment, political equivocation and senile ambivalence. These conditions, juxtaposed on

Ex-President Dawda Jawara and President Yahya Jammeh

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I have stuff to clarify as well

By Samsudeen Sarr, Newark New Jersey

I have read both articles submitted by Mr. Touray lately. I think he deserves another pat on the back for sharing an important piece of information that was not covered by the Foroyya reporters about the historic UDP rally. I really didn’t know that Mr. Femi Peters did speak at the rally with three or four other members of the party. Too bad, Mr. Touray wouldn’t elaborate on what the other speakers said which could have been the key to unraveling the mystery behind

Lawyer Darbo, Femi Peters and Col. Sam Sarr

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PRESS RELEASE

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative wants Jammeh barred from November Summit

Dear Sir:

I write as the Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). CHRI is a respected international NGO. It is non partisan and independent. The areas of its work look at accountability and we promote in particular police reform and access to information. We also advocate with the Commonwealth to make it more human rights compliant.

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Breaking News

Jammeh sacks Gibril Ngorr Secka, Deputy Ambassador in Guinea-Bissau

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Unassailable sources reaching The Gambia Echo say that Gibril Ngorr Secka, The Gambia’s Deputy Ambassador (DA) to the impoverished West African state of Guinea-Bissau, has been sacked. Reveals our competent sources at the Foreign Ministry, “as we speak, Secka is in Bundung- Serekunda after receiving his marching orders last week and rest assured, he is no longer DA Guinea-Bissau.”

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Dear Editor,
                      I admit Mr. Sarr's initial commentary infuriated me and for good reasons. First because he steadfastly refused to let the facts or elementary prudence get in the way of the overall picture he wanted to paint. Secondly he tried to pass his ideas in the guise of a dispassionate observer, a rather impossible task given how he approached the subject.

Allegedly mendacious Modou Sanyang, far right

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Third Anniversary Essay on Gambian Politics: The Way Forward For Democratic Change

By Halifa Sallah, Serekunda The Gambia

Citizenship comes with Statehood. A Citizen of a Republic is a stakeholder of the state. He or she contributes his or her quota in terms of resources and is entitled to social services. The state has the responsibility to provide the services needed by its citizens. The responsibility of formulating policies and implementing them rests with the executive.

Halifa Sallah, Gambian politician and researcher

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Karamba Touray Clarifies on UDP Rally

Editor,

            I neglected to answer one specific question from Mr Sarr regarding the specific people who spoke at the UDP rally that day. I have elected to not comprehensively describe what each of them said suffice to say they all focused on the day to day issues the Gambian people face . Here are the speakers:

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Professor Saine’s book sells well, paperback edition due in December for $27.00  

The Gambia Echo is pleased to inform its readership that after a successful one year following its publication, Professor Abdoulaye Saine’s  book: The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa: The Gambia under AFPRC-APRC Rule, 1994-2008 is due to come out in paperback next month because of the excellent sales so far. We therefore bring the paperback edition to the attention of our esteemed readership. It now sells for  $ 27 .95, considerably lower than the $ 65 for the hardback.

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Mathew K. Jallow reacts to Chongan’s Commentary

The Gambia: Paradoxical dichotomy of tribalism and the imperative of a new political homogeneity

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

Ever so often, online political conversations have found a way of mushrooming into bitter and sometimes acrimonious tribally tinged and malicious discourses. This is nothing new. The online forums and the Bantabas, Attaya vous, market places, and the other venues that offer opportunities and provide platforms for the civil exchanges of ideas, have produced a familiar theme in the political

Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

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Samsudeen Sarr fires back at Karamba

Says, “Let’s Keep It Civil, Mr. Karamba Touray”

Dear Editor,

I must confess the struggle I had to go through before finally deciding to respond to Mr. Karamba Touray’s rejoinder to my article, last week. I really didn’t want to do it because this is a special person who for the past years totally captured my admiration and respect for his courage and candor online. I really never met him or talked to him as such but envisioned him as a cool brother and friend.

Lawyer Darbo, Femi Peters and Col. Sam Sarr

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COMMENTARY

Another side to the Gambian Crisis

--Banishing the ghost of tribalism and opportunism

By Alpha Ebrima I. Chongan, London, UK

It has taken a lot of thought and reflection before I wrote this piece on the Gambian crisis which is not principally about Yaya Jammeh’s actions. It is my view that we have to address a fundamental Gambian lacuna in the form of a pervasive lack of tolerance and sub-conscious tribal tendencies. We have to forge a national Gambian identity and cross the cradle of tribe.

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Bombshell at NIA, 31 officers, 2 Directors sacked, 3 moved

--More Heads to roll, plus persons of interest to the State

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

According to our unimpeachable correspondent, Waato Seeta, 31 officers have been sacked from The Gambia’s most predacious National Intelligence Agency (NIA). In a letter dated October 13^th, 2009 all thirty-one officers were given Jammeh’s ferocious boot and as customary says Seeta; no explanation was given for the rash decision.

Gambia's Afang Iblis inspects the guards

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UDP’S Karamba Touray Replies Samsudeen Sarr on Peters vs. IGP

Dear Editor,

I'd like correct several mis- statements in Samsudeen's commentary about the recent UDP rally and the events that followed it. I will not address the very apparent attempt on Mr. Sarr's part to cobble together lies, innuendo and conjecture to fit a particular narrative i.e UDP acted wrongly and in bad faith and would hence be deservingly punished. He found fault with how the rally was not sufficiently advertised pronouncing it as being strange and unusual.

Lawyer Darbo, Femi Peters and Col. Sam Sarr

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COMMENTARY

Femi Peters vs. IGP
- -Samsudeen Sarr Predicts

Dear Editor,

 I was going to start by admitting my guilt for being out of touch on the sudden realization that the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) of The Gambia had scheduled a brief but special political rally in Serekunda on October 24th 2009 that I was totally unaware of. But after consulting several sources, it became apparent that I was in fact, part of a sizable majority who hadn’t had a clue about the

Lawyer Darbo, Femi Peters and Col. Sam Sarr

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